New Latrobe city manager hired, $120K starting salary set

Greensburg resident Susan Trout is set to take on a familiar role in a new community after Latrobe council voted unanimously this week to hire her as its new city manager.

Mayor Eric Bartels said Trout’s long experience in municipal government, including a past stint as Greensburg’s city administrator, made her a good choice to fill Latrobe’s vacant city manager post. Her financial skills are an added plus, he said.

“We felt that was a key piece for the city manager to have,” Bartels said.

He said council is hoping Trout can start work in Latrobe in early August, pending release from her current private sector employer in Pittsburgh. She will earn a starting salary of $120,000, with her contract subject to approval by the mayor and city solicitor.

Deputy Mayor Ralph Jenko also cited Trout’s experience and said he believes she will be “a breath of fresh air” for the city administration.

Bartels said Latrobe officials reached out to Trout to check on her interest in the job after receiving more than a half dozen unsolicited resumes from others seeking the Latrobe manager post.

“I was missing my time in municipal government,” Trout, who is 60, said of her decision to apply for Latrobe’s top administrative position. “It seems like (Latrobe) has a good team in place.

“I felt like it was something I wanted to get involved with, to work for a thriving community.”

With a background in accounting and finance, Trout began her career auditing municipalities for the state auditor general’s office. She then worked at Greensburg’s city hall for 22 years — first as finance director, and then as city administrator.

In 2018, she left that position to join Pittsburgh consulting firm Mockenhaupt Associates, where she continues to work under the new ownership of Acrisure.

There, Trout consults with municipal clients across Pennsylvania concerning their employee benefit plans. Her local clients have included Latrobe, where she has provided advice on the police pension plan.

“I’ve been around local government my whole career,” she said. “I audited municipalities, I managed a municipality, then I had client municipalities and now I’m back to managing a municipality.”

Trout noted she now will simply drive to nearby Latrobe for her job, instead of making the longer commute to Pittsburgh.

She said tasks at the top of her agenda will include planning for Latrobe’s 2026 budget and working with council and fellow administrators to get the city ready to take over in-house garbage collection in January.

Trout’s arrival will end Latrobe police Chief Richard Bosco’s additional role as interim city manager., which he has held since May 27.

Bosco agreed to take on the extra responsibility after the previous city manager, Terry Carcella, departed on May 23 to accept a similar role in Springdale Borough.

In late May, council also named public works director Scott Wajdic to take on additional oversight of Latrobe’s stormwater management program.

Carcella’s departure came when Latrobe didn’t renew his three-year contract as city manager. Carcella said he was unable to come to terms with the city over a new employment agreement.

He started work at Springdale with a prorated salary of $85,000

In another recent change in Latrobe’s administrative team, Timothy Pisula, who was earning about $80,000, resigned as finance director in mid-June.

That move came after Pisula had completed only about three months in the newly designated finance position. He told Latrobe officials he was planning to head back to his previous employer, Threshold, a Greensburg nonprofit that provides housing and rehabilitation services for behavioral health clients.

Bartels said city officials had interviewed a few candidates for the vacant finance director position but placed that hiring process on hold until Trout settles into her new role and can weigh in on the finance post.

“We still think there will be a need for a person to separately handle finances,” Bartels said. “We’re going to give her the ability to kind of identify how that would work.”

He said Latrobe officials have discussed possible creation of an assistant city manager post, to replace the finance director job.